Friday, April 15, 2016

A Taxing Weekend

Today is April 15. Tax day, right?

Of course TigerBlog hasn't filed his taxes yet. And when he reached out earlier this week to Sal, his accountant, to see if everything would be done by Friday, Sal said this deadline isn't until the 18th.

Before TigerBlog gets into the whole "taxes due on the 18th" thing, let him tell you about Sal. If Sal wasn't a CPA, he'd be a DJ at one of those classic rock stations somewhere. His office is jammed with music memorabilia, especially tickets from concerts going back decades.

Sal's favorites? Bruce Springsteen and Jimmy Buffett. That doesn't make him a bad person.

If TigerBlog has one question about Sal, it's whether or not he owns a suit or tie.

TigerBlog isn't sure how he stumbled upon Sal in the first place. At one point, his accountant was a guy named Joe Grillo, but he retired and moved to Arizona a long time ago.

Since then, Sal has been the man. And much like Ron the mechanic, Sal has benefited from having TigerBlog refer to him a ton of people from the athletic department.

So that's Sal. And why aren't taxes due today?

Well, as TB understands it, taxes are due on April 15th, unless that's a weekend or a Federal holiday. And that's sort of where things are now.

April 16 is Emancipation Day, which commemorates the signing of the Emancipation Act by President Lincoln. For the record, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on Sept. 22, 1862 - five days after the Battle of Antietam - and went into effect on Jan. 1, 1863.

As it turns out, Emancipation Day is celebrated in the District of Columbia on the closest weekday to April 16 if April 16 turns out to be on a weekend. And, as TigerBlog learned, any holiday in the District of Columbia is automatically considered a Federal holiday.

So that means that because April 16 is a Saturday, then the holiday is moved to Friday the 15th in the District of Columbia, making today a Federal holiday. And pushing taxes back to Monday.

If you're done with your taxes, then you don't care about any of this. If you're not, get them done - but make sure you carve out time for what is a huge weekend for Princeton Athletics.

Huge, as in a lot of events. Huge, as in events with big impacts.

If TigerBlog is adding right, there will be 10 teams that compete at home this weekend, with a total of 22 events on the schedule. Again, that's just at home.

It's hard to say what the biggest events are.

Could it be the four games that the softball and baseball teams play against Penn this weekend? Both teams have doubleheaders tomorrow and Sunday, with first pitch in baseball at noon and softball at 12:30.

Princeton is in first place in the division in both baseball and softball. A split of the four games keeps them ahead of the Quakers. Three of four? That would huge. One of four? That would change the conversation the other way.

On the softball side, Princeton is 4-4 in the division, with Penn and Columbia at 2-6 and Cornell at 1-7. If you're a Princeton, you're rooting for Columbia and Cornell to split or Cornell to win three of four, to go with Princeton victories.

In baseball, Princeton is having a major, major bounce back season. One year removed from a 7-32 season, Princeton already has twice as many wins with 14 and an above-.500 record at 14-13 after Wednesday's win at St. John's.

Unlike the softball team, Princeton has only a one-game lead on Penn. Princeton is 6-2 in the division, followed by Penn at 5-3, Columbia at 3-5 and Cornell at 2-4.

So yes, this weekend's four games are huge.

Maybe the biggest event of the weekend is women's tennis at home today against Columbia?

Princeton, the two-time defending league champ, is one of three 3-2 teams in the league (along with Penn and Cornell). Columbia in first place at 4-1. A loss to Columbia today would eliminate the Tigers.

Or maybe it's the women's lacrosse game against Cornell.

Forget the 15-6 loss to No. 1 Maryland Wednesday night. The two biggest games for Princeton are the next two, with Cornell tomorrow at noon and Penn Wednesday night.

Cornell is 4-0 in the league. Princeton is 3-0. Harvard is 3-1. Penn is 2-1.

If Princeton beats both Cornell and Penn, it would have only winless Columbia and Brown left and would have the inside track to winning the Ivy League title and hosting the league tournament.

On the other had, if Princeton were to lose one, then things get much more muddled, especially since Cornell still plays Harvard and Penn and Penn and Harvard still have to meet.

So yeah, those are big games.

The women's game is the opener of a doubleheader, with the Princeton men against Dartmouth at 3. The Tigers are playing to get back into the Ivy League tournament picture.

There's also home track and field for the men and women, home men's tennis, home women's open rowing and men's lightweight rowing, home women's water polo. The whole schedule is HERE.

The weather here this weekend should be perfect. The only one of all those events that has an admission charge is the men's lacrosse game, and you can write the cost of your ticket off on your tickets.

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